Birmingham Art Trip - Birmingahm Gallery

Below are images that were taken from the Birmingham art gallery. This was the only art gallery out of the 3 that linked with my own personal theme 'war' so they are what my photos are based around:

These were buildings/landmarks that I seen between the different galleries.

This was the final gallery that we went to and it was also the best for my theme and from the gift shop I picked up a WW1 replica which is going to be great when doing my work.

Birmingham Art Trip - IKON

Below are pictures that were taken from the art gallery 'IKON' in Birmingham:

The Ikon was a lot more abstract than the Walsall gallery and it had a lot more stranger pieces of art work but there was also a lot more colour and that was what I liked about it.

Birmingham Art Trip - Walsall

 Below are photos that were taken on the trip to the art gallery in Walsall:

All things fall.

Matt Collishaw's work

Walsall was the first gallery we attended on the art trip. I started from the top floor and worked my way down the gallery. The top floor was my favourite as it had the 'All things fall', which was a sculpture. The room this was in had flashing lights meaning as you watched the sculpture it made it feel as if it was moving and coming to life. (first picture)

Robert Rauschenburg - Signs

I have chosen to look at the collage piece 'signs' by Robert Rauschenburg. The title signs also meaning 'the signs of time'. This collage piece was originally made for the front cover of a magazine.

This image is made up of a vary of different screen prints of images that were released in magazines that were going on around that time (1960/1970's). His piece was released in June, 1970 through his gallery. All the people who are used within the collage are people who have all been associated with change and also people who hall all passed on. Death is a big part of the piece as all the people who are in this image are all dead for example Martin Luther King who was shot whilst fighting for civil rights.

Rauschenberg was forty five years of age when he made 'signs'. within this piece they are all things that happened majorly in that time and it shows how time is changing. within this piece there is the death/assignation of Martin Luther king (1968), Neil Armstrong landing on the moon (1969), the Vietnam war (1955-1975), president John F. Kennedy who was assassinated/shot (1963) and finally Janis Joplin who was a singer and song writer of rock music who passed away (1970). 

I think this piece of work has a balanced composition. I think this because there has been a good use of smaller and larger images and they are all evenly spaced. If the image had been too crowded with a mixture of different images the collage would loose its meaning. Rauschenberg uses a good use of colour for example the soldiers within the piece are all wearing green meaning they're a secondary colour and opposite this is Janis Joplin who is all in red which is a primary colour and he did this because these are complimentary colours meaning they are opposite each other but they also contrast each other. I think the reason this was done was because Rauschenberg liked to use pain a lot but by putting paint onto the piece of work would fil up the page too much and it would dry out the message that Rauschenberg is trying to get across.

In this piece the spaceman takes up the most room. unlike the others the spaceman is in white which means it contrasts with the rest of the piece. The spaceman is usually the first thing you seen when looking at this art work. Also unlike the others the space man is the only part of the collage where something good happened and it was published a lot by the government and this could be like covering up all the bad things that has happened with the good. The spaceman is also the only person in 'signs' that is looking forward. This could be like looking into the future and the reflection in the helmet being the past. The government spent a lot of money beating another country to the moon in a space race when they could've been fixing the problems that had already occurred but instead they we're trying to cover it all up. 

I think the reason why Janis Joplin is in red is so she stands out. She is also the only female on this piece of work showing that back in the 1960/1970's women weren't recognised as much as they are now showing a lot of change. Janis Joplin became famous for her rock music and once again shows how in time things change because nowadays there aren't many famous female rock players.

John F. Kennedy is also a big part of this collage even though it is only the side of his face. He was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States and he ended up being assassinated and being one of biggest events that happened in this time. Robert Rauschenberg also knew the Kennedy family so this must of been a big ting to him.

For my own collages like the way Robert Rauschenberg did with his piece 'signs' I would like my own to have a deep meaning to them. I would have to remember to put too much onto one piece or it starts to loose the meaning and try not to stick to either one or maybe two different medias or it gets crowded.

Collage - Post Man

This image is Anders Wedin and it is called 'post man'. It is put together with other collages that are similar to make up the 'farfar
project'. The photos used are pictures of Swedish men in the early 1900's who week labours of varying sorts.

I liked this collage because I liked the different style and it mixed in well with my theme because I did the same sort of style but linked it with the theme I have been looking at 'war'. I like the use of the changing a persons personality and appprrence through collage. I also like the use of the mix beyween black and white and bright colours. 

For this collage I went onto the internet and I took a picture of a person wearing their army uniform as I wanted it to like with my own theme 'war'. I also printed out a small poppy as this is linked very well with war and I have been using them in my other studies, and a pigeon as in world war 1 they were used a lot to carry messages. final I chose a similar background to the original photo but in red as the colour also links in very well. In this piece I like the use of the lines In the background which lead you into the main part of the work. I think this piece has good composition as it all links well together.

If I were to do this collage again I would take step-by-step pictures and also I would've found something bright and colourful to go across the hat of the solider and also the uniform.

My trip to nuneaton museum and art gallery

For my own personal angle on the current theme we are doing (memories, time, fade and traces) I like to thing this links very well with war which is also my own chosen theme. I went to the museum and art gallery in Riversley park, Nuneaton. When I was out I took several photographs all of things that linked with war and some of these were paintings, objects and statues all things that I could then go onto to draw. Below are some of the photographs that I took: 

This was a poppy that was on a statue.

This is the statue where the poppy was engraved. This is was a war memorial for the first and also the second world war.

This is a statues of a solider from the war holding a rifle.

These are medals from different wars. The medal on the left is service for the Iraq war. On the right was a medal awarded to the Nato Alliance Forces in the former Yugoslavia since 1994.

These are different weapons used in the war for example canon balls and guns.

This is a painting of a solider that had been into war.

These are the clothes the men would wear in the first world war.

This is a picture of people wearing gas masks because when the was happening there was a lot of different toxins in the air that could kill you so people wore these to be able to keep clean and breathe easy.

This is a uniform that a solider would wear.

These a paintings were of the homes and villages during the war.

These were the helmets the soldiers had to wear during the first world war.

These were the gas masks that the adults and children had to wear over their faces during the war when it was happening to keep them safe.